It was difficult not to be emotional recently when cancer survivors Phumezwa Maneli, Nomakula Qengwa ,Vuyelwa Titi and Leon Varcoe shared emotionally touching yet encouraging testimonies on how they overcame cancer.
The Cancer Overcomers organisation hosted a much needed cancer awareness event, themed “No one fights alone”, at the Civic Centre.
Hearing cancer survivors exchanged stories about their healing journeys was both difficult and inspiring.
Varcoe’s wife, Haroldene Varcoe, spoke on behalf of her husband. He speaks with the assistance of a device placed in his neck, after his larynx was removed . She said they discovered that Varcoe had cancer when he started losing his voice in 2018.
“In February 2019 we went to the doctor and the doctor booked us for the provincial hospital. You normally wait for three to four months to get an appointment, but for us, everything happened so quickly,” she said.
On April 11, the results came back saying her had husband cancer. They were advised to skip the chemotherapy and radiation stages and her husband’s larynx was removed.
“We had to immediately start with 25 sessions of radiation after the operation,” Haroldene recalled.
“I asked the doctor, ‘Is there nothing you can do?’ because he would never be able to speak again.
“The doctor said no,” Haroldene recalled. “I said, ‘Lord you did not bring us this far without a solution’.”
She said after doing some research, they went to Frere Hospital in East London, where a doctor said he could do something – but there was a 50/50 chance it would be successful.
“So for three years, my husband could not speak. For three years, I did not hear his voice. For three years I did not hear ‘I love you’. I had to start reading his lips and that was a way of communication,” she said.
Leon Varcoe now speaks through a vibration device in his neck, and when he did speak, it was incredibly moving.
“My wife is my pillar of strength and God has placed this woman in my life,” Leon said. “Without her I don’t think I would be here today.”
Taking the podium after Leon was Vuyelwa Titi who told the audience how she discovered in 2010 that she had breast cancer.
“I felt pain in my breast and it was also itching,” she recalled. “When I was at home, sleeping on my back, I felt as if part of my back was swollen.
“My in-laws advised me to consult a medical doctor and I did,” Titi recalled. “That was during the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
“A specialist conducted a biopsy and the results came back saying I have cancer,” she said.
Titi advised to go for an operation – but she refused, fearing she would be laid off from the police college she was attending at the time, and consequently lose the job she was training so hard for.
“I told myself that I am not going anywhere. I had to stay strong.”
She spent two weeks in Sidbury Hospital and the doctor told her that if she waited until she completed her training, it might be too late.
“I told the doctor that I will only do the operation after my training,” she said.
On December 15 2010, she underwent a mastectomy. But in 2013, the cancer came back – aggressively and severely – and she had to undergo further surgery in the same area.
“Only two centimetres was left between my chest wall and my ribs. I said thank God it is in the same place and did not spread,” Titi said.
“The support that I got from my family members and colleagues kept me going.”
Other cancer overcomers who shared a similar journey were Phumezwa Maneli and Nomakula Qengwa. It was Qengwa who pioneered the Cancer Overcomers organisation after she underwent a mastectomy.
All the survivors emphasised how important support had been to them.
Cancer Overcomer organiser, Graham Pengapenga, encouraged men to come out and test their status as well, saying cancer knows no gender.